Broom construction



1967 J. P. HORTON ETAL 3,353,201

BROOM CONSTRUCTI ON Filed Aug. 5, 1966 INVENTORS John I? Horton Albert7.'/V/'elsen ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,353,291 BROOM CONSTRUCTIONJohn I. Horton, 79 Old Fort Road, Bernardsville, NJ.

07924, and Albert T. Nielsen, North Bjaert, near Kolding, Denmark FiledAug. 5, 1966, Ser. No. 570,582 Claims. (Cl. 15-180) ABSTRACT OF THEDISCLOSURE Rotary brush assemblies having hairpin bristles, rectangulargrooved and flanged caps with recesses for receiving bent medialportions of the bristles and pins mounted in grooves within the caps forholding the bristles, and having an upwardly flaring annular plateapertured for holding the grooved caps are described herein.

This invention relates to a gutter broom and, more particularly to anassembly of bristles, or bristle tufts, for use in gutter brooms andother types of sweepers.

Rotary brushes are often used on side, or gutter brooms, rotating abouta substantially vertical axis in association with a cylindrical brushrotating about a substantially horizontal axis for sweeping streets andthe like. Such brushes typically consist of one or more circular rows ofbristles having an outward flare, which enables the bristles to contactthe side of the curb without interfering with the operation of thegutter broom or other equipment used in the sweeping operation. Suchgutter brooms are quite large, often 40" or more in diameter, mustfunction to sweep the gutters clean, must be durable, and should be asinexpensive as possible. The achievement of these desired results, amongothers, is not easy and a wholly satisfactory gutter broom has notheretofore been achieved, For instance, apparently due to theirdurability and efficiency, gutter brooms are still widely used havingoutwardly angled holes in the back of the broom through which tufts ofbristles are individually introduced and anchored even though suchbrooms are expensive due, in part at least, to the time and skillrequired to make them. Since the bristles in street sweepers are subjectto rapid wear and require repeated replacement, the operator of streetsweeping equipment using gutter brooms typically are faced either withexpensive down time or the purchasing of expensive replacement brooms.

It is an important object of this invention to provide an inexpensive,durable and eflicient sweeping element for a gutter broom.

It is another important object of the invention to provide an assemblyof bristles, or tufts of bristles, which are inexpensive and may beinexpensively assembled into a sweeping element, or broom, which isdurable and may be used efficiently in gutter brooms and other types ofsweepers such as the cylindrical sweepers mentioned above.

Another object of this invention is to provide a bristle plug-in unitthat operates effectively and which will withstand long use.

A further object of this invention is to provide improved bristlemounting means for rotary brooms.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a bristle plug-inunit which permits one to use easily fabricated and inexpensive brushelements which may be readily assembled by unskilled artisans.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent uponreading the following disclosure and claims in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings in which FIGURE 1 is a view, partly in crosssection and partly 3,353,201 Patented Nov. 21, 1967 ice in elevation, ofa gutter broom utilizing the bristle plugs hereof;

FIGURE 2 is an exploded fragmentary view of the manner of assembling thesweeping element of the rotary broom.

FIGURE 3 is a perspective view showing one embodiment of the bristleplug unit of this invention.

As shown in FIGURES 1, 2, and 3, the broom assembly of this inventiongenerally identified by numeral 1, includes a central rotary shaft 2, amounting hub 3, a dish-shaped annular piece of plate metal 4 which has alower surface 5 that slants upward on each side of its center and aplurality of retaining sockets 6 (FIGURE 2) that are shaped to retainand support with an outward flare a plurality of bristle plugs 7. Itwill be understood that most of the bristle plugs are not shown mountedin plate 4 for ease of illustration.

In FIGURE 2, it will be apparent that annular plate 4 shown in FIGURE 1can be mounted on mounting plate 3 by merely inserting the two legs of J-bolt 9 through two adjacent retaining sockets 6 and the longer legthereof through the bolt hole 9a in mounting plate 3 and then tighteningthe nut 9b onto the threads of bolt 9. The opposite procedure isfollowed when disassembling the broom.

The bristle plug 7 of this invention is shown in perspective in FIGURE3. The bristle plug has bristles 11 that are held in position in arectangular shaped flexible bristle retaining cap 12 by retaining pin 13terminating in groove 14. A flange 15 is provided adjacent groove 13 tofacilitate the positioning of groove 13 in socket 6, in which it fitssmugly. Flange 15, also prevents plug 7 being pushed through socket 6during the use of the broom. It will be apparent that upon mounting plug7, socket 6 will serve to retain pin 13 in position during use.Likewise, it will be apparent the rectilinear socket 6 and the matingrectilinear groove 13 serve to keep the plug 7 in a predetermined anddesired orientation, In the illustrative embodiment, the bristles 11constitute superimposed layers of rectangularly shaped flexible steel.In such an embodiment both the flare of the bristles and the manner inWhich the bristles contact the surface to be cleaned are important, whenused in a gutter broom. Where round bristles, such as plastics, areused, the flare of the bristles is the primary consideration in gutterbrooms.

Cap 12 (FIGURE 3) is shown with a damper ring 17 held in position by apair of flexible damper ring retaining and positioning strips 18 orsimilar damper ring retaining means; use of these preferred features isoptional. The damper ring 17 prevents excess vibration and increases thewear life and cleaning efiiciency of the bristles. Retaining strips 18hold the damper ring 17 to cap 12 to form a single integrated unit andprevent the damper ring from slipping downward, or upward, on thebristle. The cap retaining means, and the shape of socket 6 and theshape of retaining cap 12 may be modified in any desired manner as longas the cap is adequately held and retained in its corresponding socket.In a less desirable embodiment, the groove may be eliminated leavingonly a re taining flange or vice versa. Any plug-socket retention matingstructural arrangement may be used in place of the structure shown. Theshape of the damper ring may be modified in a similar manner. The capcan be, and is, a resilient material, such as a resilient plastic, butother materials could be used. The annular member 4 may be made ofplastic, wood or metal, and the socket wall could be lined wit-h aresilient plastic to increase the flexibility of the socket wall and thefrictional engagement between the socket and the plug cap. The bristlesmay be composed of any standard bristle material, such as metal,plastic, natural bristle, etc. The specific materials used are optional.

The position of the socket in the broom wheel may be varied. Thebristles may be outwardly flared due to'an upwardly flaring angle asshown in the drawings or they may be in a vertical position. Offsettingthe bristles at an angle to the surface that is to be cleaned reducesthe strain of centrifugal force on the bristles as the brush Wheel isrotated; this in turn reduced vibration, brush wear, and bristlebreakage. In the same respect, the brush mounting annular ring, shown inthe drawings, may be modified and any standard brush backing shape couldbe used. It is readily seen that if the lower brush surface 5 were aflat horizontal surface, the sockets 6 could be offset at an angle fromthe vertical axis to offset the bristles, In this latter embodiment, ifthe sockets are not offset, the bristles will be in a vertical position.

The specific brush backing, or mounting member 4, shown in FIGURE 2,consists of a dish-shaped metal ring 8 having a plurality of sockets 6which are countersunk holes. Cap 12 fits into the countersunk holes ofsocket 6 and both groove 14 and the socket 6 are proportioned so thatgroove 14 is encircled by the corresponding narrow diameter portion ofthe countersunk hole to prevent cap 12 from rotating and slipping out ofthe socket. Due to the fact cap 12 is made of an elastic plastic(elast-orner), the cap may be compressed enough for mounting and willthen spring back so that groove 14 fits smugly into socket 6. Otherelastic material could be used in a like manner. In this way, one mayuse quite inexpensive tufts of bristles and inexpensive holders for thetufts. One may use a thicker, more expensive structure for holding thetufts if one wished, but the simple structure discussed above and shownin FIGURE 2 is adequate.

As pointed out above, the tufts of brush material, or bristle plug 7,could be used in other types of sweepers. For example, they could beused in the longitudinal plates of the type shown in US. Patent3,228,053 although, in that case, the holes in the plates preferablywould be bore holes rather than punch holes.

In addition to the advantages mentioned above, it has been found thatgutter brooms assembled in the manner described possess superiorcleaning characteristics, and wear on the bristles compares mostfavorably with the wear on the bristles of known gutter brooms. Forinstance, these attributes have been proven under field conditions usinga plate having two rows of holes each containing 40 holes, or a total of80. Sixteen of the holes were used for 8 mounting bolts so that thegutter broom contained 74 tufts. The tufts were flared at an angle ofabout 34 to the horizontal and had an outside diameter at the wire endsof 43 /2". Both the diameter and flare angle are conventional.

The present invention is not limited to use with street sweepers orgutter brooms since both vertical axis and horizontal axis type rotarybrooms may employ the bristle plug features of this invention. From theillustrative embodiments set out above, use of the composite of bristletufts and plugs in other types of brooms and other types of mountingelements, or backings, will occur to one skilled in the art withoutdeparting from the spirit or scope of the invention,

What is claimed is:

1. Brush apparatus comprising a bristle plug having a plurality ofhairpin shaped bristles aligned with medial bends in parallel planes; abristle cap having first and second ends and having a central recessextending from the first end to an area near the second end, the recessreceiving bent portions of the bristles, which are abuttexi against thearea near the second end, the cap further comprising a flange extendingoutward in continuation of the first end and a groove depressed in thecap adjacent the flange; the plug further comprising a pin extendingthrough said cap at said groove and extending through said bristlestransverse to aligned planes of the bends of the bristles, whereby thebends of the bristles are anchored against movement between the pin andan area of the cap near the second end.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the cap, recess flange and groovedefine rectangular cross sections.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 further comprising first and second flatretaining strips extending outward from the first end of said capadjacent opposite edges of the recess, extending along the bristles, anda rectangular damping ring fixed to outer ends of the strips andsurrounding the bristles.

4. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the cap further comprises an inwardtapered rectangular portion extending from a maximum at a side of thegroove remote from the flange to a minimum at the second end of the cap.

5. The brush apparatus of claim 2 further comprising a rotatabledish-shaped plate having an upwardly slanted peripheral portion andhaving at least one aperture in the peripheral portion commensurate withthe groove in the cap, whereby when the bristle plug is inserted in theplate the groove is held within the aperture in the plate, locking thepin against translation, and whereby the flange prevents furtheradvancing of the plug into the plate when the assembly is in use.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,101,520 6/1914 Bemis 15-200 X1,957,363 5/1934 Snell 15-191 1,998,562 4/1935 Sturgis 15-180 X2,271,494 1/1942 Gerndt 15-168 2,656,559 10/1953 Wiseman 15-1802,683,885 7/1954 Johnson 15-200 X 2,930,065 3/1960 Duhoux 15-198 X3,029,456 4/1962 Pharo 15-180 3,066,343 12/1962 Lechene 15-180 3,074,0941/ 1963 Lechene 15-180 3,140,499 7/1964 Du Bois 15-188 X 3,274,6349/1966 Godfrey 15-198 FOREIGN PATENTS 861,958 3/1961 Great Britain.

CHARLES A. WILLMUTH, Primary Examiner.

PETER FELDMAN, Assistant Examiner.

1. BRUSH APPARATUS COMPRISING A BRISTLE PLUG HAVING A PLURALITY OFHAIRPIN SHAPED BRISTLES WITH MEDIAL BENDS IN PARALLEL PLANES; A BRISTLECAP HAVING FIRST AND SECOND ENDS AND HAVING A CENTRAL RECESS EXTENDINGFROM THE FIRST END TO AN AREA NEAR THE SECOND END, THE RECESS RECEIVINGBENT PORTIONS OF THE BRISTLES, WHICH ARE ABUTTED AGAINST THE AREA NEARTHE SECOND END, THE CAP FURTHER PRISING A FLANGE EXTENDING OUTWARD INCONTINUATION OF THE FIRST END AND A GROOVE DEPRESSED IN THE CAP ADJACENTTHE FLANGE; THE PLUG FURTHER COMPRISING A PIN EXTENDING THROUGH SAID CAPAT SAID GROOVE AND EXTENDING THROUGH SAID BRISTLES TRANSVERSE TO ALIGNEDPLANES OF THE BENDS OF THE BRISTLES, WHEREBY THE BENDS OF THE BRISTLESARE ANCHORED AGAINST MOVEMENT BETWEEN THE PIN AND AN AREA OF THE CAPNEAR THE SECOND END.